Best photos of 2011

Thirty really impressive photos of this year.

Note: Click on a photo, to watch a gallery of all these pictures.

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KTM MRW Rally Factory’s Juan Pedrero Garcia rides his motorcycle during the sixth stage of the 2011 Argentina-Chile Dakar Rally between the Chilean cities of Iquique and Arica in Chile, on January 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

An Occupy Wall Street protester joins a demonstration at Times Square, New York, Oct. 15, 2011. Thousands of anti-Wall Street protesters rallied in New York’s Times Square on Saturday, buoyed by a global day of demonstrations in support of their month-long campaign against corporate greed. Source: Reuters

Photographer: Rana Dias Category: Wildlife in my Backyard “This greedy wasp never wanted to leave the blackberry hedge in our backyard. He wasn’t interested in what I was doing and was having a fabulous time munching on the berries. The lighting was just right and he gave me the best pose,” Dias said. Source: Rana Dias, BWPA

Roger Federer of Switzerland serves to Tommy Robredo of Spain during their match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Jan. 23, 2011.

A leopard attacks a forest guard at Prakash Nagar village near Salugara, on the outskirts of Siliguri, India,on July 19, 2011. The leopard strayed into the village area and mauled several villagers, including three guards, before being caught by forest officials, according to news reports. The leopard, which suffered injuries caused by knives and batons, died later in the evening at a veterinary center. The forest guard being attacked was also injured. (AP Photo)

A motorcycle policeman is engulfed in flames as his colleague tries to help him after protesters threw a petrol bomb in Athens, Greece, on February 23, 2011. Scores of youths hurled rocks and petrol bombs at riot police after clashes broke out during a mass rally taking place as part of a general strike. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

It was a sunny day and I went down to the end of my garden to the pond. I lay down and tried not to scare the frogs. I waited for about 20 minutes and there were about 10 frogs poking their heads in and out of the water. I then saw the perfect picture of a frog and its frogspawn and I took the picture of it. Source: Painswick, Gloucestershire, BW

Ciara Trait of Ireland, after winning the 25 meter backstroke event in the 2011 Special Olympics Summer Games, on July 1, 2011 in Athens, Greece. (Vladimir Rys/Getty Images)

Ocean waves stained red with blood crash ashore as inhabitants of the Faroe Islands catch and slaughter pilot whales (Globicephala melaena) during the traditional “Grindadrap” (whale hunting in Faroese) near the capital Torshavn, on November 22, 2011. The Faroese are descendents of Vikings, and pilot whales have been a central part of their diet for more than 1,000 years. They crowd the animals into a bay and kill them. “Grindadrap” whaling is not done for commercial purposes, the meat can not be sold and is divided evenly between members of the local community. (Reuters/Andrija Ilic)

A boy cries after breathing in tear gas thrown by national policemen in a provisional camp for earthquake victims during clashes with demonstrators in downtown Port-au-Prince, Feb. 7, 2011. Around 200 protesters demanding that Haiti’s outgoing President Rene Preval leave office immediately, set up burning barricades on Monday and threw stones at the police and U.N. peacekeepers in the capital Port-au-Prince, witnesses said. Source: Reuters

Miami Heat’s LeBron James holds his son, Bryce, during the second half of the South Florida All-Star Classic NBA basketball game, on October 8, 2011, in Miami. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

A mask-wearing protester uses his laptop computer in the Occupy LSX camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral, ahead of a demonstration against higher tuition fees and privatization in universities on November 9, 2011 in London, England. Around 4,000 police officers were on duty and were allowed to deploy baton rounds if needed. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) #

The 10/110 freeway interchange is seen in Los Angeles, Calif., July 16, 2011. Source: Reuters

Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. Source: Reuters

A photograph of the India-Pakistan border released by the NASA. Source: Earth Observatory, NASA

A Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) soldier stands in line during a rehearsal of the Independence Day ceremony in Juba July 5, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (SUDAN – Tags: SOCIETY POLITICS MILITARY) Source: Reuters

An unidentified severely malnourished Somali refugee child rests inside a ward at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital at the Dagahale refugee camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border, July 28, 2011. Aid groups, which have been clamoring for money to help famine-stricken Somalia, are struggling to reach millions in the affected areas. Some 3.7 million Somalis risk starvation in two regions of south Somalia controlled by Islamist al Shabaab militants. Yet more than 2 million of them have not received any help. Source: Reuters

A multiple-exposure image of Novak Djokovic of Serbia, as he serves during the men’s singles match against Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia during the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London, England, on November 25, 2011. (Michael Regan/Getty Images for Barclays)

An aerial photo shows a residential area being hit by a tsunami in Natori, Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2011.

A heifer charges at a reveller after the last running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona July 14, 2011. There were no serious injuries during the run that lasted two minutes and 20 seconds, according to local news sources. Source: Reuters

Lightning flashes around the ash plume at above the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain near Entrelagos June 5, 2011. The volcano in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle chain, dormant for decades, erupted in south-central Chile on Saturday, belching ash over 6 miles (10 km) into the sky, as winds fanned it toward neighboring Argentina, and prompted the government to evacuate several thousand residents, authorities said. Picture taken June 5. Source: Reuters

The Russian Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Ronald Garan and Russian cosmonauts Alexandr Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko, leaves a trail across sky on this long exposure picture, as it blasts off at the Baikonur cosmodrome April 5, 2011. Source: Reuters

Australian V8 Supercar driver Karl Reindler’s car (2-R) bursts into flames after a collision with another race car (L) driven by Steve Owen during competition at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth May 1, 2011. Both drivers walked away from the crash with Reindler being taken to hospital with burns to his hands, local media reported. Source: Reuters

VISUALS COVERAGE OF SCENES OF DEATH AND INJURY A decomposing body lies on a road in Abidjan April 14, 2011. Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo was overthrown by Ivorians, not by foreign powers, the United Nations said on Thursday amid rising criticism of its role in the removal of the former leader.

The race car of driver Will Power (left) goes airborne during a multiple-car crash at the IZOD IndyCar World Championship race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 16, 2011. The motor racing world was left reeling from the death of time-two Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon, who was killed in the crash, as the season-ending celebration turned to disaster. (Reuters/Barry Ambrose)

Soccer players from Haiti’s Zaryen team (in blue) and the national amputee team fight for the ball during a friendly match at the national stadium in Port-au-Prince, Jan. 10, 2011. Sprinting on their crutches at breakneck speed, the young soccer players, who lost their legs in Haiti’s earthquake last year, project a symbol of hope and resilience in a land where so much is broken. Source: Reuters

A wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the area March 11, 2011. The earthquake, the most powerful ever known to have hit Japan, combined with the massive tsunami, claimed more than 15,800 lives, devastated many eastern coastline communities, and triggered a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station.

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